CNN decides what’s important — a decision that tracks with keeping donkeys safe

As you may recall, CNN refused to cover State Sen. Leland Yee’s arrest in any detail because his was a local story, and that was beneath them. This was true despite the fact that it was, by any standards, an exceptionally juicy narrative, complete with peculiarly named mobsters (“Shrimp Boy”), hypocritical politicians (gung-ho gun-control Yee selling black market weapons), and murderous Islamists (the recipients of those weapons). “Feh!” sneered CNN. “It’s in line with us covering state senators & state secretary of state races just about never. You see another conspiracy?”

In examining the veracity of that smear, let’s put aside CNN’s enthusiastic (although not as enthusiastic as MSNBC’s) Chris Christie coverage. Arguably, Christie was cover-worthy because he had presidential aspirations, raising him above a mere “state senator.”

But what about U.S. Rep. Vance McAllister? He’s the Louisiana congressman who was caught kissing a staffer. Admittedly, he is a member of Congress, making him a nominally national figure, but honestly, it’s a generic story about a guy known only in his Louisiana parish: politician runs on family values (and they all do) and then gets in trouble over a woman. Except for the fact that there’s some implied sex, it’s not a sexy story, it’s not about a man who’s carved out a national reputation for himself, and it doesn’t implicate larger political concerns. None of that has stopped CNN.

To date, and using CNN’s own search engine, I’ve found seven — count ’em! seven! — CNN main stories and blog posts about McAllister:

Over at NewsBusters, Brent Bozell and Tim Graham offer a primer on the decisions MSM outlets use when they determine what’s newsworthy. You won’t be surprised that the algorithm includes determining what’s good for Democrats and bad for Republicans. Nor will you be surprised to learn that Leland Yee isn’t the only utterly corrupt Democrat — and, moreover, one who is corrupt in interesting and creative ways — whose story the media has determined simply isn’t newsworthy.

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Media decide what they consider important. Always have, always will.
Only today WE decide which MEDIA are important. Exhibit A, MSNBC. And close behind in irrelevance, CNN.
Remember, The Onion logo was deliberately crafted to resemble CNN’s at a glance, back when it was called the “Clinton News Network.” And those Onion parodies have proved surprisingly prescient.